Snails and slugs like chewing into berries but they’re easy to control with a light sprinkling of Yates Blitzem® Snail & Slug Pellets around the plants. You may also need to net your strawberry plants to protect them from hungry birds.
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Christmas Cherries

Cherries are the quintessential Christmas treat, with delicious shiny red fruit becoming available in summer. A big bowl of chilled cherries is hard to resist, as are fruit and savoury salads with cherries, cherry glaze for ham, cherry puddings, cakes, tarts and cheesecake. We’re going to need a lot of cherries!

You can grow cherries at home if you live in a climate where you receive enough ‘chilling hours’. So cherries are best suited to areas with cool or cold winters and a dry spring and summer is also beneficial to help reduce the incidence of disease.

Cherry trees vary in size from around 7 m tall down to more compact varieties such as ‘Compact Stella’ from Waimea Nurseries that grows to around 3 m, which is perfect for smaller gardens. In addition to delicious fruit, cherry trees also have pretty blossoms in spring and lovely autumn foliage.

Cherry trees are most commonly available in winter as bare rooted plants but potted trees can be available at other times of the year. Choose a variety that’s suited to your climate and also check to see whether that variety is self fertile or needs pollination from another cherry.

They need a spot with at least 6 hours of sunshine a day and well drained soil.

And during or after periods of wet or humid weather, cherries and other stone fruit like apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines can be prone to brown rot. Apply Yates Nature’s Way® Fungus Spray every 10 – 14 days to help keep this destructive disease under control.
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Summer citrus care

Small fruit developing on many varieties of citrus trees during summer heralds what we’ll be enjoying during the cooler months.

We can help nurture those promising fruitlets by taking a few simple citrus care steps over summer:

Sooty mould

If you’ve noticed a black ash like film over citrus leaves or stems or ants crawling up and down the tree, it could indicate the presence of insect pests like scale.

Scale are sap sucking insects that can be covered in a waxy white, brown or pink coating and appear as small raised bumps on foliage or stems.

Scale deplete plants of important sugars and nutrients and excrete honey dew, which is a sweet sticky substance that ants eat and sooty mould will grow on. If the scale insects are controlled, the sooty mould and ants will gradually disappear.

It’s based on natural pyrethrin and vegetable oil and is certified for use in organic gardening. Yates Nature’s Way Citrus & Ornamental Gun will also control aphids, which are another contributor to sooty mould attracting honey dew.

Watering and feeding

Deep and thorough watering of citrus trees, particularly potted citrus, will help reduce water stress, which can lead to citrus dropping their developing fruit. Application of a wetting agent like Yates Waterwise™ Soil Wetter around the tree can assist water to penetrate more effectively down around the roots where it’s needed.

It’s also a good opportunity to apply or top up mulch around the root zone, which will help protect the shallow root system. And regular feeding of hungry citrus trees will really help to promote a fantastic harvest so it’s important to make fertilising citrus trees a priority.

If you’re lucky enough to have your own Tahitian lime tree, some of the best tangy fruit will be ready from January. Limes can be harvested whilst still green, when they’re around 6 cm in diameter. Perfect for summer drinks and cocktails as well as marinades, cakes and desserts.

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